Dye Festival

Who says you need a hot date to have a good time on a Saturday night? When I found myself with a free Saturday evening because Dale had a band job I got right on the phone with dear Blogless Sharon and invited her over for a yarn dyeing festival. And we did festival it up a bit. There was a bit lot of wine and a bit of cheese and quite a bit of dyeing.

Since I had successfully mastered already attempted space dyed yarn, I decided it was time to try some hand painting. So, out came the dyes and the squirt bottles.

It was really simple and really fun! Following Dave’s very scientific instructions, I put 1/2 tsp of powdered dye (PRO Chemical One Shot Dyes if you’re shopping) and a plastic spoonful of vinegar into an 8 oz squirt bottle from the beauty supply shop, then filled the bottle the rest of the way with hot water. We then took wetted skeins of yarn and squirted them with dye. Then we wrapped them in plastic wrap and steamed them for about 1/2 hour each.

Right out of the steam pot

Unwrapped. Note the presence of wine. Just saying.

We made four skeins total and here they are hanging out after they had been rinsed until the water ran clear.

I left them there to dry over night. In the morning they were still a bit damp so I stuck them out on the deck in the sunshine. Finally, after an hour or so, they were dry and I set about re-skeining them.

Voila. Hand painted yarn. One is for my dye pal and Sharon and I are fighting over dividing up the other skeins.

VERY Koigu-like, only with your own twist to it. Stunning results. My dyes from PRO Chemical arrived today as well as my dyed yarn, which was done by Scout J herself, so I’m both nervous and ready to start dyeing. Thank you for the inspiration!